Giannis Andrianopoulos (; 1900 – 6 November 1952) was a Greek

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

and one of the founding members of Greece's most successful football club,

Olympiacos CFP Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós (, Olympic Association of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number of different competitive departments which participate in Association ...

Club career

Born in

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; ; , Ancient: , Katharevousa: ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens city centre along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf in the Ath ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, Andrianopoulos began his career at the age of 18, playing for local club Peiraikos Syndesmos. There, he earned his first taste of success, winning an unofficial Greek Championship in 1923. Peiraikos Syndesmos merged with Peiraiki Enosis in January 1924 and the Athletic and Football Club of Piraeus was formed. Andrianopoulos was part of the new team and helped them win the 1924 Athens-Piraeus championship.

Olympiacos

The same year around autumn, the new club split in two different squads: One team, led by the Andrianopoulos brothers and goalkeeper Kostas Klidouchakis, formed Olympiacos Omilos, which evolved into

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós (, Olympic Association of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number of different competitive departments which participate in football, ...

; the other, led by Kostas Ferlemis, Christos Peppas and Giorgos Chatziandreou merged, with an independent club named "Young Boys" to form Peiraikos Omilos, which in turn evolved into

Ethnikos Piraeus Ethnikos Piraeus (Greek: Εθνικός Πειραιώς) is a Greek multisport club based in Piraeus. It was founded in 1923. The full name of the club is Ethnikos Omilos Filathlon Pireos/Phalirou or Ethnikos OFPF (Greek: Εθνικός Όμι� ...

. Following a series of mergers between other

and

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

based clubs, as well as an Athens football Championship, Andrianopoulos and his brothers went on to create

in March 1925. Giannis, Georgios, Konstantinos and Vasilios, Leonidas went on to make the newly formed Piraeus Club famous throughout Greece. Two other brothers, Aristides and Stelios Andrianopoulos, were playing in other Piraeus football clubs. Giannis Andrianopoulos was the oldest of seven brothers who, like him, would go on to become famous footballers in the Olympiacos' ranks. As a result, Yiannis and his brothers earned Olympiacos the name ''Thrylos'' meaning "Legend" in Greek, a nickname which the club carries to this day. Giannis was certainly the brother who made the biggest impact towards the club, even becoming a player-coach; Olympiacos' first coach, from 1925 until 1927. In 1929, he retired from football, and became Olympiacos' president for 3 years.

International

Andrianopoulos played for the national side for the

1920 Olympic Games The 1920 Summer Olympics (; ; ), officially known as the Games of the VII Olympiad (; ; ) and commonly known as Antwerp 1920 (; Dutch and German: ''Antwerpen 1920''), were an international multi-sport event held in 1920 in Antwerp, Belgium. In M ...

. His brother Giorgos was a member of the team too. His brothers at Olympiacos also played for Greece in 1929 and 1930.

Honours

*Olympiacos First Manager *Olympic Football Tournament FinalFIFA.com
/ref> *President of Olympiacos (1929–1932) *President of E.P.S.P & Hellenic Football Federation

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Andrianopoulos, Giannis 1900 births 1952 deaths Olympiacos F.C. presidents Olympiacos F.C. managers Olympiacos F.C. players Footballers from Piraeus Footballers at the 1920 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Greece Men's association football midfielders Men's association football forwards Greek football managers Greek men's footballers 20th-century Greek sportsmen